They key aspect of any successful website will be the “findability” of that site; if people can’t find you, how are they supposed to take advantage of the products or services you offer?

Facebook pages are no different!

There are many ways you can prepare your Facebook page so that you can be sure it will be seen by as many people as possible.

While the amount of Likes your page has will factor into your page’s ranking on a search engine, the Facebook developers have also implemented their own intricate system for pages to compete for user attention.  It is important to consider both of these forums in order to receive maximum exposure.

For both Google and Facebook search results processes there are a few things you can do to increase your findability.  For starters, don’t make the name of your page too descriptive.  Title it simply with the name of your brand or company, and be sure to separate each word and phrase with a space.

Facebook search works in such a way that your page will only show up if the exact word type into the search box matches a word in your page title, exactly.  This is tricky because, for example, “running” and “runner” will bring up two totally different sets of pages.

Facebook works with an algorithm called EdgeRank which measures how interactive your posts are.  A useful tool to give you an indication of how good your pages Edge Rank is can be found at www.edgerankchecker.com

Stuffing your page with keywords will not help bypass this issue, however, as Facebook pays more attention to interaction and connections (The Edgerank) than it does to keywords.  To increase your search rankings on Facebook it is important to maintain a wide audience of users from many different locations.  Give users reasons to post on your page wall, mention you in their status updates, or anything else that will build connections, in order to experience the best results.

Also, put some thought into choosing your Facebook page category and subcategory.  This will point users in your direction based on their hobbies and interests, and make your page easy to identify on search results pages.